Girls Team Progress Summary for First Half of Season

Posted Tuesday, October 02, 2007 by Perry King

First Half Summary and Team Power Ratings

The Dobbs girls' 2007 season seemed to finally get kicked off on September 29 at the Warwick Big Purple Wave Mania Invitational. With captain Lauren Hanley shaking off her early-season jinx and the rest of the young team pulling in behind her, the Eagles are basically right where they were expected to be. The emergence of a promising 7th grade group gives an extra boost forward for the rest of this season and the near future.

Battling against much larger and older teams all season has helped to prepare the girls for the big races ahead. The close pack of the team's top runners has provided a solid placement in the meets even if the young team is finishing in the middle of the pack at races such as Warwick. Based on last year's results and graduations, at season's kickoff the Eagles appeared to be in a tight contest for the 6th spot among the Section 1-C teams. Not much has changed during the first few weeks, but following Warwick Dobbs now appears to be 5th best team with a chance to challenge for as high as 3rd by the Sectionals.

Tallying up the Tully Runners-based Speed Ratings for the 1-C teams (interpreting as necessary for runners not included in database), the results show that Bronxville is dominating the action as expected. Irvington has a solid hold on 2nd though star runner Mairin Din has been injured much of the season. All of the rest of the teams have depth or inexperience problems, which should make the 2nd half of the season a very interesting time. Lauren's 61 rating for Warwick is far behind the 91 rating she scored at the Westchester County meet in 2006, so if everything falls into place for the pack-running Eagles, a season-ending kick to the finish could gather a high place at the Sectionals.

Approximate Team Strength Speed Ratings (based on last race or ranking average)